WHICH ALLIANCE SYSTEM WAS THE STRONGEST IN 1914

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Introduction

WHICH ALLIANCE SYSTEM WAS THE STRONGEST IN 1914? In 1914, the six most powerful countries in Europe became two opposing alliances. The Central Powers (Triple alliance) consisted of a contracted pact between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy in 1882, of which was followed, 25 years later, by the Triple Entente pact between Britain, France and Russia. Each country was notorious for their advanced and mass military, and the initial Central Powers alliance had installed sufficient fear and suspicion to form an Entente. Many argue there is certain evidence that The Central Powers alliance was stronger than the Triple Entente. In 1870, Germany gain hold of the flourishing Alsace-Lorraine industrial area in France, so that in 1914 German industry was the 2nd most successful in the world to U.S.A: we can therefore assume that Germany found this economically gratifying as well as having access to advanced technological machinery. ...read more.

Middle

This is another advantage for T.C.P. However, Russia has been acquiring vast armament, as is the same through out the T.E- and the up and coming country of Serbia has now become allies of Russia: this adds to T.C.P's fear of T.E's 'encirclement' strategy (in case of, T.C.P all relied on the single 'Schlieren' strategy of war plan, hoping their assumptions of the T.E's actions would be correct). Other opposed arguments to T.C.P is that the current situation within Austria-Hungary is not stable. The many nationalities inside its borders are demanding independence of some sort and this may lead to a devastating civil war (a pro for the T.E) or in the least, the country will not have a united view and this could be potentially dangerous when entering a war. Not only was Austria-Hungary in a weak position, Italy had a poor industrial and infantry power- and it didn't help T.C.P that Italy had other aims for its country as well (to build up more colonies and overseas empires) ...read more.

Conclusion

plus, Britain had always used its excuse of being overseas and majoring in the army as a way of not getting involved in any land battles).Additionally, T.C.P have a substantially bigger army that can be more easily transported within the countries, but if war was declared in the strategy of encirclement, the T.C.P is faced with a dire situation that they most likely won't win ergo this puts the T.E in control. In conclusion, I believe that T.C.P was stronger if they were the first to declare war and take the T.E by surprise. This will also weaken the T.E's strategy as they won't have the time to transport any resources to each other (as they are so far apart). Furthermore, as the T.E was at such a non-committal state there is a chance that one of the countries would pull out at any time, seriously weakening the other two's status. ?? ?? ?? ?? Katherine Rostami HISTORY GCSE 10/05/2007 - 1 - ...read more.

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4 star(s)

This is a strong response that considers both sides of the argument and stays focused throughout. The analysis could have been taken further in places and the author often slips into the present tense. It could also be linked to the events of 1914 to add weight to the conclusion. 4 out of 5 stars.

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